Calling my model painting a 'stim' ignores the skill involved.

It's a practiced art form that requires patience and precision.

3 comments

3 Comments

Does it drive you nuts when people say that? I paint minis too and calling it a stim feels so dismissive. It takes so much focus to get the tiny details right, like brush control on the edge of a cape or getting a smooth layer. That's not just fidgeting, that's real skill you've built up over time.

wyatts951mo ago

Calling mini painting a stim is like saying chefs just stir stuff. You don't get smooth blends and crisp lines by accident after all. It's pretty silly to reduce all that practice to simple fidgeting.

taylor8229d ago

You're missing the point about what a stim actually is. It's not just fidgeting, it's any repetitive action that helps you focus or feel calm. For someone like @jenny289, the act of painting those tiny lines could be the exact thing that lets her brain settle down to do the skilled part. The practice and skill are real, but the physical motion of the brush can be the stim that makes it possible. Saying it's a stim doesn't take away from the talent, it just explains how some people get into that zone. Reducing it to only being about skill ignores how different people's brains work.